Nzinga Mbandi

Queen of Angola
(about 1580-1663)

Also known as Jinga,
Singa, and Zhinga, she led an abortive revolt
against the Portuguese colonial government after a falling out concerning
control of the slave trade. Two of her war leaders were reputedly her
sisters, her council of advisors contained many women, and women were called
to serve in her army. Nzinga formed a confederacy of other tribes and allied
herself with the Dutch, continuing to fight the Portuguese for over thirty
years. The
Portuguese came to respect her, however, both for her shrewdness and for her
intransigence. Though deeply devoted to her family and her tribe, she displayed a
considerable callousness towards Africans of other ethnicities.